HYDERABAD: Between lessons, attendance, and student work, Government school teachers in Telangana say they increasingly have to squeeze in digital reporting too, spending one to two hours of their workday on online requirements and leaving less time for what they are meant to do—teach.
They have urged the School Education department to provide adequate technical support in schools and cut down the online reporting burden. With more digital initiatives being added, teachers say keeping up with the paperwork is becoming a task in itself.
Teachers said they must upload data, update Google Drive, and submit reports through multiple government platforms, alongside teaching, evaluation, attendance, and maintaining student records. The list includes UDISE, FRS, Telangana Education App, Khan Academy, FLN, FA/SA marks entry, online mid-day meal and breakfast reports, PTMs, coding and AI classes, AXL labs, Eco Clubs, Nasha Mukt Bharat activities and SHVR ratings.
“Teachers are meant for teaching and students are meant for learning in the classroom. Excessive online work is diverting the attention of teachers from the teaching-learning process,” said T Vivik, a government school teacher.
And it does not stop at filling in forms. M Ravinder, a mathematics teacher at Government School, Nallakunta and additional general secretary of the Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation (TPTF), questioned the practice of making teachers monitor students’ activity on platforms such as Khan Academy, including lessons completed, videos watched and online assessments.
There is another problem: the digital push is happening in schools that often do not have enough computers or reliable internet connectivity. Ravinder said a class of 30–40 students could not use digital applications simultaneously when schools had only around 10–12 computers.
With facilities falling short, students are often asked to use their parents’ smartphones, teachers said. That, they added, brings its own concerns about distractions and misuse of devices — even as schools are being encouraged to reduce students’ dependence on smartphones.
“We welcomed initiatives such as coding, artificial intelligence and robotics, but these should be properly integrated with the academic curriculum and given appropriate academic recognition and it will be better if the School Education department reduces unnecessary online reporting, strengthens digital infrastructure, provides technical assistance in schools and appoints support personnel for data entry and digital documentation. Digital initiatives can be useful, but they should not come at the cost of classroom teaching,” said Ahmed Khan, another teacher.
